Politico's Pulse Check

One week ago, HHS Secretary Alex Azar joined President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden to announce his signature initiative: A long-awaited plan to lower drug prices. The secretary’s been on a tour to explain the plan — which has faced resistance from pharma and was panned by some Wall Street analysts — and POLITICO’s Dan Diamond joined Azar at HHS headquarters to review the latest developments. On this episode, Azar discusses where drug prices rank as an administration priority and how he wants taxpayers to judge success (starts at the 1:40 mark), why the plan doesn’t include importing drugs from Canada, an idea that Trump supported as a presidential candidate (5:15), why Azar wants to put drug prices in TV ads (9:00), whether he was prepared for the backlash to the plan (10:15), why he suggested that the media doesn’t want the drug plan to be perceived as successful (12:10), how Azar wants to combine Medicare Part B and Part D negotiations (13:10), and what Azar sees as a former pharma executive (16:45).